Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke said he has offers out across the NHL map to swap draft picks, but hasn't received any bites yet.
"Everyone's being entirely unreasonable," he said as he left Wednesday's board of governors meeting.
He's hoping he gets a bite, though, because he made it clear he had already decided on the player he'd like with his No. 7 pick, and said he would "try to move down one or two spots" to get him.
The player he's thought to be after is Brandon Wheat Kings centre Brayden Schenn, brother of defenceman Luke, who was selected by the Leafs last year. Brayden is said to be a better player than Luke, a defenceman.
Burke is worried, because the Los Angeles Kings, who pick fifth, have Brayden high on their list. They've already interviewed him several times and general manager Dean Lombardi is sold on him. However, there is said to be some dissent in the ranks with his scouts.
That's what happens when you run your mouth all the damn time.
They have a Top-4 defenseman at a nice 4.25mm cap hit that LA does need according to what DL said at the SOF meeting.
Of course, Burke would be crazy to package Kaberle + 7th for the 5th + mid-level prospect but he does seem to have a hard-on for Schenn. Everyone knows he has said hard-on so they aren't going to move down just for a 2nd round pick.
If the other guy LA wants is MSP then moving down to 7th could make sense. It's no surprise though that Lombardi is fixated on Schenn.
Any time you want to move up a tier in the draft - it's really flipping expensive. Add in the Leafs were among the worst run teams over the last 10+ years, and his organization doesn't have a lot of tradeable valuable asset. The assets he does have (Kaberle, Kubina, Stajan, etc) aren't what rebuilding teams (aka- those picking early in the draft) would really be looking for.
It's almost like Burke expects everyone to bend over and take one in the rear for him. When he moved up for the Sedin's he had a very good young d-man in McCabe to make that move, but he doesn't have the assets in TOR to make that kind of move.
Last edited by Beukeboom Fan: 06-25-2009 at 10:18 AM.
Any time you want to move up a tier in the draft - it's really flipping expensive. Add in the Leafs were among the worst run teams over the last 10+ years, and his organization doesn't have a lot of tradeable valuable asset. The assets he does have (Kaberle, Kubina, Stajan, etc) aren't what rebuilding teams (aka- those picking early in the draft) would really be looking for.
It's almost like Burke expects everyone to bend over and take one in the rear for him. When he moved up for the Sedin's he had a very good young d-man in McCabe to make that move, but he doesn't have the assets in TOR to make that kind of move.
If Kane is off the board at 5, I definitely see Lombardi taking Schenn.
I finally got a chance to read my ISS guide about MSP, Kane and Schenn. If Schenn is not the prtotypical DL guy I dont know what is. Based on what I read and never seeing these guys I would say Schenn, MSP, then Kane.
Boohoo! Makes me want DL to draft Schenn even more. but I agree with whoever said Schenn is typical DL guy. He has size, scores, toughness and from DL's perspective (I wouldn't know) shows up when you need him most. Makes me really want this guy. At first I wanted Kane purely based on his name. NOw either Schenn or MSP (I really hate acronym but understand it is almost a necessity) would be good in my book.
